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Manna

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Manna (sometimes or archaically spelled mana), (Hebrew: מָ‏ן) is the name of the food miraculously produced for the Israelites in the desert in the book of Exodus. Manna ceased to appear when the Israelites first harvested their crops in their new homeland. George Ebers (Durch Gosen zum Sinai, 1881, p. 236), derived "manna" from the Egyptian mennu, "food" (JE "Manna"). By extension "manna" has also been used to refer to any divine or spiritual nourishment.

Biblical Manna

According to the Bible, the mysterious substance which was provided miraculously by God to the Hebrews during their forty years in the desert descended by night like hoarfrost in the form of coriander seed of the color of bdellium (Book of Numbers 11:7). It was collected before sunrise, before it melted in the sun. The people ground it, or pounded it, and then baked it (Num. 11:8). A double portion was to be found on the day before the sabbath, when none was to be found. When the Hebrews arrived at Gilgal, on the 14th of Nisan, and began to eat the grain grown there, the manna ceased.

Hebrews 9:4 records that a pot with manna in it was stored in the Ark of the Covenant, along with Aaron's staff that had budded, and the unbroken Ten Commandments. This Ark was in turn kept in the "Holiest of Holies" (the inner chamber) of the tabernacle that the Israelites carried with them in the wilderness for 40 years. This inner chamber was where the priests would encounter the presence of God.

In his book, The Politics of Consciousness,[1] Steve Kubby argues that these physical observations correlate directly with psilocybe mushrooms. For one thing these mushrooms are small and round, and since they sprout so rapidly they would seem to appear overnight, as if out of the sky. Also, anyone harvesting them would immediately notice that they turn blue where torn and had no roots, giving more reason to believe that the mushrooms were of celestial origin. Note that manna does not just fall from heaven, but instead it is described as coming with the frost and dew, during the wet seasons. These are the precise weather conditions for mushrooms to thrive.

Kubby argues that the Old Testament tells us exactly what manna looks like, the manna was “as coriander seed,” and the colour thereof. When psilocybe mushrooms are dried, their range of colors is identical to dried coriander seed. The similarities in the texture, color, tones, contrasts and general visual appearance is immediately apparent to anyone who takes the time to compare dried coriander seed and dried psilocybe mushrooms, according to Kubby.

Kubby also argues that Moses tells the children of Israel that manna comes directly from Heaven to test them on whether or not they will walk in God's law. Is this evidence that manna was endowed with unusual spiritual powers, like those of magic mushrooms. Moses also said that the manna is literally the "bread of the lord" which is remarkably similar to the literal Aztec name for psilocybe mushrooms, "flesh of the gods." If manna was merely food, as some have speculated, then we must ask why were only the men allowed to eat it?

How and why did the manna suddenly appear? Again referring to the Bible, Kubby argues that it is clear that the children of Israel had journeyed to a land where there was "dew in the morning." As a large, nomadic tribe, the Israelites brought a lot of cattle and sheep together in the area. That meant a great deal of manure. The change of climate from the arid lands of Egypt to the dewy climate of the wilderness created ideal conditions for the propagation and spread of psilocybe mushrooms in livestock dung.

Quranic Manna

According to the Quran 2:57 [2], the manna along with quails was sent down from the heavens, the passage comes within a series of other passages that enumerates the miracles and mercy of God on the Jews (called "Children of Israel" in this verse). In Quran 7:160 [3], the sentence "Partake of the good things which We have provided for you as sustenance." appears again exactly as in the previously cited passage. Finally, in Quran 20:80 [4], it is stated that Manna and quails were descended not in exact terms as the two previous occurences but using the same style, that is God addressing the Jews directly, when relating the story to the reader. However, there is no quranic indication on the nature of Manna.

Identifying manna

Some modern readers believe this may have been an edible cake called Shewbread or Showbread wafer or the sap of a variety of succulent plant found in the Sinai peninsula, which may have had appetite-suppressing effects (plants of the genus Alhagi are sometimes called "manna trees"). [5] Others have hypothesized that it was one of the species of kosher locusts found in the region. [6] The most widespread explanations, however, are either crystallized honeydew of scale insects feeding on tamarisk twigs, or thalli of the Manna Lichen (Lecanora esculenta).[7] At the turn of the 20th century local Arabs in Palestine collected the resin of the tamarisk as mann es-sama ("heavenly manna"), and sold it to pilgrims (JE "Manna").

Experts in the fields of ethnomycology such as R. Gordon Wasson, John Marco Allegro and Terence McKenna have speculated that just as with the sacred Hindu Rigvedas' repeatedly high praise of the miraculous food soma or the Mexicans' teonanácatl (literally "god mushroom"), psilocybe mushrooms are the prime candidate in Manna's accurate identification. [8] However, the Sinai is habitat quite unsuitable for mushrooms, and no source attests to any entheogenic properties of manna.

Immanuel Velikovsky hypothesized that manna consisted of a "hydrocarbon rain" that resulted from a close encounter between Venus and Earth. This claim has been debunked by Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, and others.

Modern term

The term manna is also used in the modern context to refer to a secretion from various plants, including certain desert or semi-desert shrubs and especially the Ash Fraxinus ornus (manna or flowering ash) of Southern Europe. [9] The material is produced by sap-sucking insects that secrete a honeydew like liquid, that when dried forms manna; it has a sweet taste. Eaten in large quantities, it is mildly laxative and has been used medicinally for that purpose.[10]

Christian vegetarian view

According to the essay “The Semiotics of Food in the Bible,” by Jean Soler, the Creator (God) originally intended for man to only eat the food borne by plants such as fruits and vegetables. Plants were not considered “living” in part because they cannot move so “killing” them was not a sin. The manna that was given to the Hebrews during the exodus was vegetarian and as follows: “It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafer made with honey” (Exodus 16:31). The Babylonian Talmud, however, presents a view that its taste varied depending on who ate it: "For the youth the manna tasted like bread, for the elderly like oil, and for the small children like honey" (Yoma 75b).

According to Judeo-Christian tradition, God originally intended for man not to eat meat.(Genesis 1:29) Eating of animals was prohibited at the beginning because in order to eat animal one must first kill it, and this was against God’s will. This changed, however, after the Fall of Man and the Great Flood. In Genesis 9:3, God tells Noah: "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.". People were, in time, permitted to eat only clean animals such as those that are strictly herbivorous, including sheep and cattle. (see Leviticus) Carnivorous animals and swine were considered unclean because they ate the blood of the animals they killed. The blood was considered the life that God gave and therefore only God has the rights to the blood.

Manna as a mushroom

Some believe that the biblical reference to manna refers to one of a number of entheogenic mushrooms. The use of entheogenic substances throughout history, from Native American Church Peyote, the União do Vegetal's ayahuasca, the Hindu and Sikh Soma and Amrita, and the Indo-Iranian Haoma seems to validate the biblical use of manna as a mystifying substance of transcendent experience (Mushrooms and Mankind). As noted above, this is highly spurious, as no source attests an entheogenic effect, the transcendent properties of manna being philosophical rather than physical, and mushroom ecology is hardly compatible with abundant growth in desert habitat. Also, the Biblical descriptions (e.g. Exodus 1strongly argue against a mushroom, especially the known psychedelic species, none of which is a white grain "as small as the hoar frost" (some 2-3 mm).

Manna of Saint Nicholas

The remains of Saint Nicholas (the historical saint who Santa Claus is based on) secrete a clear liquid, that is called "manna", from inside the tomb of the former Bishop of Myra. The liquid is attributed with miraculous abilities. (http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=42)

References

Notes

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ The Holy Quran, Surat Al-Baqara, Verse 27 (Wikisource)[2]
  3. ^ The Holy Quran Surat Al-Araf (Wikisource)[3]
  4. ^ The Holy Quran, Surat Taha (Wikisource)[4]
  5. ^ Alhagi as "Manna Tree" [5]
  6. ^ Locusts as Manna [6]
  7. ^ Bodenheimer theory [7]
  8. ^ Terence McKenna, Food of the Gods, (New York, Harper Collins) p. 84.
  9. ^ Manna as Ash Tree [8]
  10. ^ Ash Tree as laxative [9]

See also

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